Undergraduate Advising

Before Contacting an Advisor, Read the Following:

  • Transfer Transition Message: If you are an incoming English-intended transfer student, please read the message in its entirety. If you were unable to attend our information session, a recording is available for you here.

Enrollment: 

Declaring:

To contact an advisor by email, please use english_advising@berkeley.edu.

UMAs check this email consistently Monday through Friday.

Appointments and Drop-In Advising:

Starting September 2nd, we will no longer be using CalCentral to book English major advising appointments; all appointments will be booked through Calendly. Please see UMAs' listings below for their Calendly booking link.

Drop-ins Calendar: 

To view our drop-in hours hosted by Undergraduate Major Advisors and Peer Advisors, visit our drop-in advising hour calendar. Availability is updated as needed.

Undergraduate Major Advisors - Appointments & In-Person Days

Hannah Cox: On campus Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Remote appointments on Wednesdays and Fridays only. Scheduled appointments can be booked here.

Halle Trang: On campus Monday through Wednesday. Remote appointments on Thursdays only. Scheduled appointments can be booked here.

Jasmine Valenzuela:  On campus Tuesday through Thursday. Remote appointments on Mondays and Fridays only.  Scheduled appointments can be booked here.

For Zoom appointments, we kindly ask that you have your camera on. 

Peer Advising:

Peer Advisors share their knowledge of and experiences with English major courses, extracurriculars and student groups and campus resources. For specific degree requirements/degree checks, please book an appointment with our Undergraduate Major Advisors. Peer Advisors are unavailable during campus official holidays/breaks. Peer Advisors are available for more general questions.

What topics can you get help with through Peer Advising?

  • Help with using Assist.org for transfer courses
  • Assist with choosing classes to declare major or to complete major requirements
  • Support navigating which campus office to contact with questions
  • Guidance in whether to make an appointment with advising staff

To view available Peer Advisor drop-ins, visit the advising drop-in calendar.

Faculty Major Advisor and Director of Undergraduate Studies:

What are the differences between the Faculty Major Advisor (FMA), the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS), and the Undergraduate Major Advisors (UMA)? Good question, and here are some answers:

The Undergraduate Major Advisors are here to help you with the rules and requirements of the English major and minor: only the UMAs have access to the student systems that carry out the technical and administrative processing of your records. The UMAs are the people you must go to in order to declare the major officially. You should also go to them for help with articulating community college courses, petitioning to transfer courses from other departments or schools, and questions about department deadlines and schedules.

The Faculty Major Advisor is here for different reasons and needs that you may have. The FMA can serve as an intellectual mentor for the academic year. What being an “intellectual mentor” means is that the FMA is happy to talk with you about your intellectual interests, classes that fulfill or supplement those interests, academic and curricular choices more generally, possible study after college—and more. If you have a question that the FMA cannot answer, they can usually refer you to another source. Particularly if you have not already found a faculty mentor from among the teachers of your classes—but even if you have—please feel free to contact and visit the FMA for their expert guidance.

For the academic year 2025-2026, the department’s Faculty Major Advisors are:

Steven Lee (stevenlee@berkeley.edu) and Maura Nolan (mnolan@berkeley.edu)

Maura Nolan: By Appointment only, please email mnolan@berkeley.edu to book. 

Steven Lee: Available Tuesdays 11 am - 1 pm in-person or via Zoom, with sign-ups.

The Director of Undergraduate Studies, Kathleen Donegan (english_dus@berkeley.edu), welcomes you to the department and is here to discuss the same issues as the FMA and to offer you similar sorts of guidance. In addition, like the UMAs, the DUS can answer the questions you have about the details and requirements of the major or minor (but she cannot process your electronic records). She makes the decisions on student petitions for transferring courses from other departments and schools and can therefore advise you on that subject. Finally, the DUS can also talk to you about the department course offerings for the current academic year and possibly the next. Students are encouraged to drop in on her office hours, email her for an appointment, or ask questions by email.